Mordecai Character Builds

Last week I did a review on the game Borderlands. As I was writing it, several times I found myself wanting to share my techniques for playing the game. I would by no means call myself an expert at the game, but I have played it several times including on Playthrough 2, so I have built up the characters of each class so that they can successfully complete the challenges that the game throws at them. It was with this in mind that I decided to share my character building advice with everyone.

Over the next few weeks I will be posting suggestions on building killing machines for each of the character classes in Borderlands. This is not going to be a be-all and end-all character building guide. There are many different styles and tactics to use when playing Borderlands and you can build a capable character no mater what your playing style. I'm writing this guide mainly to illustrate the diversity of the character skill system and to share what has worked for me and my style of play.

When it comes to first-person shooters, I try not to put myself in a box. I like to try different things and different ways to approach situations and missions. Obviously with these games, the designers often throw in missions that take specific tactics. While there is some of this in Borderlands, most of the missions are just free-style combat. Therefore, it was nice to have the variety of different skill options available in in Borderlands that I mentioned in the review.

Now even though I do like to try different styles, I do tend to gravitate toward the sniper. I'm not sure why. Maybe it's because I like to take my time and enjoy the game, or showing that I have the patience to sit with my sights on one spot waiting for that guard to come around the corner for the third time, or maybe it's just because I like to watch, nice and close, while my foes' heads explode (let's just call that last one a nasty little habit I picked up from the GTAIII

code). Whatever the case may be, I like to snipe.

Now, in all fairness, you can build a sniper out of any of the character classes if you choose. The game really is that flexible. HOWEVER, Mordecai the Hunter is intended to be your go-to guy for sniping. That being the case, this first build guide is going to focus on him.

ROGUE

Leaning towards the sniper class as I do, Mordecai struck me as the character I wanted to play right off the bat. He has three skill sets; Sniper, Rogue, and Gunslinger. Each set has seven skills. You can see Mordecai's Skill Tree HERE. If you hover the cursor over the skills you can read about what benefits each one provides (thanks goes out to Gearbox for creating a Flash Skill Tree so I didn't have too). As you can see the sniper set is the first set if looking at it from left to right and I thought that this would be the branch I would focus on. However, Once I got Bloodwing, I liked the dynamic of it and so I focused on the Rogue branch instead. I found it refreshingly unique for a first person shooter.

Now, I have to say that I was only interested in the Bloodwing skills in the Rogue branch, especially the Bird of Prey skill. I could have went either way with my auxiliary skills (Sniper or Gunslinger) But I figured that since I was focusing mostly on Rogue that I'd make my ancillary skills Gunslinger. I figured the bird was going to give me away while sniping anyway Not to mention Bloodwing has a limited range. So my first build went like this (I took the skills in this order as I leveled up):

1. Swift Strike level 5
2. Out for Blood level 5
3. Now tier 3 is open you can either work Aerial Impact to level 5 or go back to tier 1 and work Swipe up to level 5 (on my Mac Hunter I went with Swipe and on PS3 I took Aerial Impact. Swipe provides more and better loot when Bloodwing attacks, but Aerial Impact makes Bloodwing's attacks more powerful. I give AI the edge since there is no shortage of loot in this game, but either way once you have one of them powered up you will open the tier 4 Bird of Prey skill, which is vital if you are focusing on the rogue style.)
4. Bird of Prey level 5 (note: that I took the shortest route to maxing out Bird of Prey. This should be done regardless of what branch of the skill tree you take. Get to the tier 4 power as fast as possible.)
5. Now that you have all the important Rogue skills you can grab ancillary skills from the other trees. In my opinion, Gunslinger skills are the way to go since Bloodwing can only attack from mid-range anyway. In addition, of the two Bloodwing skills offered by the other trees, the Gunslinger Predator skill beats out the Sniper's Carrion Call since you do not have to do anything to increase Bloodwing's cooldown. However, Carrion Call does reduce the cool down for every hit with the sniper rifle, so if you can just blast hip shots off quickly you can have Bloodwing ready to go in no time. For me though, I went with Predator. I just feel that the closer range skills are more important since Bloodwing cannot attack from sniper rifle range. Therefore, I took this path from here: Deadly level 5 (you could do Gun Crazy, but to me this just rips through ammo too fast.)
6. Lethal Strike level 5
7. Predator level 5

At this point you will probably be close to the end of the game. If you have not played any of the DLC you might not even make it to Predator before finishing the game, but That's what is great about Playthrough 2, you can just continue on your chosen path. On playthrough 2, I went for Carrion Call in the Sniper group leveling up Caliber and Killer along the way. After maxing out Carrion Call I went ahead and leveled up Trespass too since it negates enemy armor for any gun and not just sniper rifles.

Also, something I forgot to mention in the Borderlands review is that there is a level cap of 58 meaning that you can accumulate a total of 54 skill points to spend (remember, you don't start collecting skill points until level 5 and then it's 1 point per level). Now, if you purchase and install The Secret Armory of General Knoxx DLC, it will increase your level cap to 69 giving you 11 more skill points. These additional skill points make it possible to gain all three tier 4 skills, not that I would actually worry about doing that, it just brings that to within reach if you choose to do so. Personally, I'd rather spend the points on other buffs.

Now, something that the game allows that makes it fun to try other styles of play is re-specifying of the character skills. You can do this by going to any New-U Station and buying a respec (Reset Skill Points on the New-U menu). This gives you all of your skill points back so you can reapply them differently. This is actually not that expensive especially if you do it at the beginning of Playthrough 2.

SNIPER

So, let's say I just completed the game using my Rogue build (which I actually just did on the Playstation version last night) and now I want to switch to a Sniper build. Start a new game on Playthrough 2 using the same character. At the very beginning you will remember Claptrap introduces you to the New-U Station. Use this station to respec your character as follows:

1. Caliber level 5
2. Killer level 5
3. Now on tier 3 you could go with either Carrion Call or Loaded depending on how you plan to play. I went with Loaded because a) I had my fill of relying on Bloodwing on my first playthrough and b) because I want to focus on being a true killer sniper.
4. Trespass level 5. It is worth mentioning that maxing out Trespass makes enemy armor of no consequence since bullets have a 100% chance of penetrating the armor (they also get a 5% damage boost). Having this skill maxed this early in the game is a huge advantage and you will need it with the tougher enemies.
5. Deadly level 5. As I mentioned before, as a sniper, you are constantly making head shots, which are ALWAYS critical hits. So Deadly is definitely worth the investment of points for a sniper. 
6. Next apply 5 points to either of the tier 1 Rogue skills (Swipe or Swift Strike or both). It really doesn't matter, all you are trying to do is open up Rogue tier 2 so you can . . .
7. Max out Fast Hands. Sniper rifles are one of the slower reloading weapons. After maxing it out abandon the rest of the Rogue tree.
8. From this point invest skill points in the Gunslinger skill tree however you wish until you max out Relentless.
9. After you have Relentless (if you have not capped out yet), you can spend skill points on whatever you want. It really doesn't matter because you already have all the skills that work toward making a killer sniper.

I have to mention that in my opinion the sniper in this game is better suited for multiplayer play. There is far too much close-quarter combat from the sniper to be truly effective during solo play. that is not to say that you cannot complete the game with the sniper build, but it is much more difficult. Save your sniper for multiplayer sessions as a support character. Let the commandos and berserkers take the enemies head on while you hang back and cap head shots. Also remember that you can respec your character at anytime and that it is not expensive to do so. So if you want to start a multiplayer session with the rogue that you have built up, don't be afraid to respec him to a sniper for the session and then respec him back when you want to go solo again.

I can't stress enough how this guide is merely suggestions for you to think about when planning your Mordecai character. There are so many ways to go about building the "perfect" character that I'm sure other's have their own ideas. In fact, I would love to here those ideas and maybe try them myself. If you have a killer Mordecai character build, share it in the comments. Thanks for reading.